China's Golden Week travel surges but spending lags pre-pandemic numbers

BEIJING (Reuters) -The number of domestic trips and total travel expenditure during China's week-long National Day holiday exceeded last year's numbers, but per capita spending lagged pre-pandemic levels, according to the culture and tourism ministry.

The data, released on Tuesday, is an important indicator of consumer demand and the health of the Chinese economy.

It showed that 765 million domestic trips were made across the country during last week's Golden Week holiday, a year-on-year increase of 5.9%.

Expenditure by domestic tourists reached 700.82 billion yuan ($99.30 billion), a year-on-year increase of 6.3%.

However, per capita spending was 2.09% lower than the same period in 2019 before the COVID pandemic, according to Reuters' calculations.

Despite the rise in total trips made, the average spending edged up 0.38% year on year, almost flat, in line with forecasts by analysts.

Chinese consumer spending has been sluggish in the past two years amid a downturn in the property market and mounting concerns about employment and income security.

While Chinese people have demonstrated a strong desire to travel, consistently taking more trips around major holidays than before the pandemic, they are less keen to spend while travelling. On lifestyle social media app Xiaohongshu, some users shared their experience of bringing their own food to scenic sites in order to avoid buying food and snacks from kiosks on site.

During the holiday, a screen shot circulated widely online in China showed dozens of people lying on the floor of a public toilet at popular tourism site Huangshan Mountain, reportedly sleeping there rather than spending money on a hotel.

On X-like Weibo, a user said he went to Beijing during the holiday because of its affordable sightseeing options. "The National Museum is free of charge, Tiananmen Square is free, Peking University and Tsinghua University are free, Jingshan Park costs only 2 yuan!", the user wrote.

(Reporting by Sophie Yu, Casey Hall; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Raju Gopalakrishnan)